How Did Triceratops Work?

decades ago, you'll probably recognize triceratops. The frilled, three horned herbivore died out sixty five and a half million years ago, but you can find its likeness pretty much anywhere, from museums to toy stores to a National League Baseball park. Our fossil record has been kind to this beast. Hundreds of tri saratop skeletons have turned up in the American West, and they're actually hard to avoid, the fossil rich Hell

Creek Formation of Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. In seven at Neil, Charles Marsh, the U. S. Geological Survey's official vertebrate paleon ptologist, received a fossilized animal brow with two large horns that a colleague had found near Denver, Colorado. Unaware of the specimen's age, Marsh figured it came from a prehistoric bison, which he named Bison alta cornice. Later discoveries proved the creature was actually a dinosaur, far larger

than any cow relative. One incomplete skull bearing three horns and a partial beak found its way to Marsh after some Wyoming cowboys have lastowed the thing, snapping off a horn in the process. Marsh dubbed the animal Triceratops, meaning three horned face a nine scientific paper. Note that this is a genus name. Under the system we used to classify living things, a genus is one magnitude greater than a species, so within the same genus you can have

multiple closely related species. Today to Triceratops, species both named by Marsh are considered valid Triceratops hortus and Triceratops porer sous. Close tension is required to tell these animals apart. All Trisratops had three horned skulls, with two massive horns above the eye sockets and a smaller one over the dose. However, adult Triceratops porses had slightly longer nasal horns than their cousins did. Another difference, the beaks of Triceratops poruses looked

proportionately shorter. We know both species changed as they aged, and not just in terms of overall body size. A bony frill protruded from the backside of every Triceratops skull, but when these animals matured, their frills grew longer, often compared to medieval shields. These frills may have served a defensive purpose, or maybe they evolved as communication tools. The structures could have been vibrantly colored, advertising the health and

stanima of individual dinos. Trisaatups Hatchlings had stubby, little brow horns above their eyes. Those horns lengthened and curved backward during adolescence, but over time a dramatic reversal took place. The horns straightened out and then bent forward. In older specimens, maturity came with growth spurts. The smallest known Triceratops skull from a very young animal is just eleven point eight

inches or thirty centimeters long. Other recovered skulls measuring well over six and a half feet or two meters in length clearly belonged to adults weighing and estimated six and a half thirteen tons. The biggest triceratops were twenty nine and a half feet or nine meters long. From nosed tail, the tips of their shoulders would have stood almost ten ft or three meters off the ground. Unlike alligators and monitor lizards, triceratops held their arms and legs in a

more or less vertical position. Yet, as Donald are Prothero notes in his twenty nineteen book The Story of Life in twenty five Fossils, Tales of intrepid fossil hunters, and the Wonders of Evolution, most triceratops fingers didn't point dead ahead. Instead, these hand digits were angled away from the body. Think up jazz hands. On top of the u s states we've mentioned, Triceratops fossils also occur in west central Canada.

The genus first appeared around sixty eight million years ago, near the tail end of the geologic period called the Cretaceous. Triceratops were still at large when a mass extinction closed out the Cretaceous sixty five and a half million years ago. Thus, Triceratops has the distinction of being one of the last non avian dinosaurs to ever evolve. It was also a

late arriving Saratopsian distributed across Eurasia in North America. The Saratopsians were a group of plant eating dinosaurs that predominantly lived in the Cretaceous, known for their beaks and long, flaring cheekbones. They ranged from bipedal dog sized animals too well giant quadrupeds like Triceratops. Many had horns and or frills arranged in a spectacular array of different combinations. Triceratops belonged to the Chasmosaurinae, a major subgroup of these dinos,

characterized mainly by their elongated snouts, among other features. Large eyebrow horns were another common trait among the Chasmasaurians. Triceratops included Lesions and fractures are frequently seen on trisaratops frill and cheek bones. These could indicate that the animals used their brow horns in one on one combat with each other. The jury is still out on whether or not Trisaretops moved in herds, but we have a pretty good idea of what the creatures ate. Their teeth were arranged in

so called dental batteries. Every individual tooth was stacked in a vertical column of three to five teeth, and these formed rows, with thirty six to forty tooth loaded columns occurring side by side. Altogether, a single triceratops could have eight hundred teeth at its disposal. With its narrow beak, powerful jaws, and replaceable self sharpening teeth, Triceratops probably fed on tough, fibrous plants. But what eight the triceratops. Well,

we know tyrannosaurs. Rex lived in the same time and place, and it occasionally made a meal of the big herbivore. Bite marks matching t Rex's distinctive teeth have been found on several triceratops skeletons, with the frills and faces getting more than their fair share of the injuries appointing to these scars. Some have argued that t Rex would methodically rip the heads off of dead triceratops by grabbing ahold of the frills and tugging, the predators could decapitate the bodies,

exposing choice neck muscles below. Nothing beats a hard earned meal. Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini and produced by Tyler Playing for More in this and lots of other curious topics. Visit House to works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio or more podcast It's My Heart Radio. Visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H